Thursday, June 30, Fargo ND to Callaway, MN

One note about yesterday: we passed 2000 miles total for our trip yesterday after about 2/3 of our ride!

We stayed in a motel last night as it was quite windy and there was a strong chance of thunderstorms during the night. We both think we might have heard some thunder during the night and there were puddles outside this morning. We wound our way north and east and rejoined the route. Soon we crossed the Red River into Moorhead and headed north paralleling the river for a while. Passed a huge sugar plant. After turning east we continued through the flat landscape of the valley through large agricultural fields with rich-looking soil for miles. Jim said, “For the first time on this trip, I’m getting bored.”  It seemed flat and monotonous and sterile—with little sign of life except for an occasional red-winged blackbird in the ditch and the vehicles on the road. After 12-14 miles or so, we had a short, easy climb out of the valley and the landscape became interesting again.  

Later in our ride, we saw about 14 white vehicles, mainly pickup trucks, in a small parking area just off the road and small groups of people scattered in the field beyond. We also saw an information bulletin board  so we pulled in to look at it and noticed that all the vehicles had government license plates. We were at the Hamden Slough National Wildlife Refuge and they were soil agronomists from a number of different states taking a class in soil sampling techniques and interpretation. 

We got to Callaway about 3 pm and so took life easy for a while at the small city park where we are camping.